Although I have dabbled with cryptic (or British-style) crosswords for years, this year I’ve made more of a dedicated effort to improve my cryptic solving. I’ve tackled Josh Wardle&#821…

Image courtesy of BBC.com The Voynich Manuscript is a cryptologic curiosity unlike anything else we’ve seen before, one that has baffled linguists and puzzlers for decades. This hand-written book w…

YouTube video by Cracking The Cryptic

Puzzmo is one of the best puzzle game apps out there. Their puzzles are terrific, their games are as diverse as they are engaging, and if you’re not using the app, you’re missing out. A…

I wanted to do one more Sudoku-centric post for Sudoku Month, so I figured I’d take a look at different solving techniques! Sudoku is all about deduction, but you’d be surprised what yo…

A few weeks ago, I tried to define what makes a board game the worst board game. And I made a passing reference to The Oregon Trail Card Game and my work group’s Sisyphean efforts to conquer …

There’s so much going on in the intertwined worlds of puzzles and games, so let’s skip the intro and get to the good stuff! Bryant Park Crossword Tournament This Weekend! The summer crossword bonan…

Last week, I tried to define what makes a board game the worst board game. Obviously, I tried to keep it light. I genuinely strive for the tone of PuzzCulture to be positive. I love puzzles. I love…

I was talking about board games with a friend of mine over the weekend, and he asked me what I thought the worst board game was. That’s a difficult question to answer, because a lot of factor…

We’re dressed To the Nines and this is the Number Place to be! I waxed both lyrical and nostalgic about Sudoku in yesterday’s post, so let’s get down to business with today’…

Tomorrow, 9/9, is International Sudoku Day. And while I have a special Sudoku puzzle planned for tomorrow, I wanted to take some time today to talk about this puzzle. Because, honestly, Sudoku is k…

For today’s post, I’ve gathered a few tidbits from around the world of puzzles to keep you informed. We’ve got puzzles to solve, a discount code, a new crossword tournament in 202…

Mosaic of the 12 labors of Heracles… “The way to deal with an impossible task was to chop it down into a number of merely very difficult tasks, and break each one of them into a group of horr…

Image courtesy of Healthline. “Do not lament my absence, for in my spark, I know that this is not the end, but merely a new beginning. Simply put, another transformation.” Sadly, we los…

In a recent Gameplay newsletter, Sam Corbin wrote about three-word instructions / mottos (like “Eat, Drink and Be Merry” or “Live, Laugh, Love”), and pondered a slogan like …

Free RPG Day is one of my favorite events of the year. It helps spread the word about roleplaying games, gives new players a chance to try out games for themselves, and it supports local game …

Image courtesy of the New York Times. In today’s bonus post, I’ve got a crossword for you to solve, but first, a quick little bit of backstory. Social media inspired today’s puzzl…

The nineteenth edition of Lollapuzzoola, as is tradition, arrived on a Saturday in August. Last Saturday, in fact. (I was not in attendance, but I did purchase the Solve at Home puzzle pack.) I had…

I found this collage on Bluesky. Sadly, the world lost Liv Ullmann last week. An actress, filmmaker, and representative of UNICEF, her work graced both stage and screen, and she was an integral par…

Just a quick post today to talk about a puzzly event this weekend, two more coming up, and a brand-new one announced for next year! Lollapuzzoola always happens on a Saturday in August, and this Sa…

It’s an awesome time to be a crossword fan. You’ve got LOADS of outlets doing traditional crosswords, both themed and themeless / freestyle. There are minis and midis for quicker solvin…

A few years ago, there was an amazing moment in internet history. The entire internet rose up as one and agreed on a single topic. It has never happened before and will most likely never happen aga…

Palindrome, written as an ambigram. I’m a sucker for wordplay. I’m sure that comes as no surprise to you, gentle reader. You’re probably a fan of wordplay as well. Two of my …

Yesterday I had a chance to sit down and test my cruciverbalist mettle with this year’s puzzles from the Boswords Summer Crossword Tournament. I look forward to Boswords every year, so I had high e…

Our Summer Reading series continues this week with a deep dive into classic and modern murder mysteries and how they’ve shaped and been shaped by puzzly design! This week, join me as I explor…

Tsuro is one of my all-time favorite board games. Ever since I first saw it played on Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop YouTube series, I was hooked. I bought my own copy a year later, and for over a de…

Our Summer Reading series continues this week with some puzzle solving and some mystery solving! (Can it top The Case of the Crossword Cipher? Keep reading to find out!) This week, join me as I inv…

Image courtesy of ESPN. The World Cup final is today, celebrating the conclusion of weeks of competition between amazing teams in front of passionate fans the world over. So naturally, we’re …

Dear luminaries and other influential people who adjudicate the National Toy Hall of Fame: In November of last year, I wrote about the most recent class of toys and games accepted into the Hall of …

After two Summer Reads that were peripherally about crosswords, it felt appropriate to finally read something definitively about crosswords. So join me as Natan Last takes on a journey, exploring w…

Just a quick post today to remind you of TWO big crossword events coming soon! Firstly, Boswords is just a few short weeks away, and they recently announced the constructors for this year’s t…

The gift that keeps on giving… Clue (aka Cluedo) is one of the all-time classic board games. It has seen numerous variations and licensed versions (like the Golden Girls edition, where you ne…

Last week I kicked off our Summer Reading review series with Matching Minds with Sondheim. This week, I decided to go back in time to a book I probably read during a summer break years and years ag…

It was disappointingly hard to find an image for the 250th anniversary or the Fourth of July that didn’t make me want to puke, so here you go, a map of America without the idiotic “Gulf…

One of my favorite places on the Internet might surprise you. It’s a subreddit called r/AdventuresOfGalder, and it’s a place to celebrate those we’ve lost. Imagine that you’…

School is out, and it got me thinking about summertime during the school year. I can remember looking forward to reading every summer break. There would be lists of possible choices to read, and I …

Free RPG Day (Weekend) 2026: 119 items for $0.00

“I have purchased, used, and recommend this product. It’s filled with a wonderful assortment of Adversaries, Environments, and some fantastic stat block scaling advice!” – @gaurelin.bsky.social “Worth...

Explore an underground cave system in this Daggerheart compatible Adventure Frame Tales from Jinglewood – Spa Day CREATED FOR FREE-RPG-DAY 2026 THE PREMISE Gary, Jinglewoods resident excavation specia...

a barebones microRPG inspired by Pokémon mechanics

From Here to There is a mini, setting-agnostic hexcrawl that takes place in a forest through which a road passes through. The road is safe enough, but what dangers lie off the beaten path? Written fo...